Our guest for the full hour is Robert Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch and the author of two New York Times bestsellers (all titles available at Amazon.com): The Truth About Muhammad and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades). Others of his books include Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't; Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World's Fastest Growing Faith; and Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West. His bio is HERE.

We will discuss with Mr. Spencer his new book, released earlier this month.

Listen to the November 21, 2008 edition of The Gathering Storm Radio Show, live or later, by CLICKING HERE.

Gayle of Dragon Lady's Den. will be with us at the bottom of the first hour. We will discuss with Gayle current events, particularly those about which she has recently blogged, and the upcoming National Election.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Here at Northern Virginiastan, we have written frequently about the Islamic Saudi Academy. Despite numerous problems, the school continues to operate without impunity or adequate investigation. Most politicians and our own State Department refuse to hold the ISA accountable. But one Congressman is trying!

U.S. Representative Frank R. Wolf (R-10) has again called for a thorough investigation and review of curriculum textbooks being used by the Islamic Saudi Academy citing the U.S. Commission in International Religious Freedom's claim that they "promote violence and intolerance."

In a September 16 letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Wolf chastised the State Department for not answering his previous letters on the Saudi Academy textbook issue and for ignoring his plea to have the controversy settled prior to the commencement of the 2008-09 school year.

"I write to let you know that I just received my first response from the State Department after having written three letters over a two-month period regarding the Islamic Saudi Academy and concerns raised by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on the content of textbooks being used there," Wolf wrote.

"After seeming inattention to these concerns, the letter my office ultimately received in response did not address my repeated requests that you convene a meeting of relevant State Department and USCIRF representatives -- to include the expert analysts commissioned by USCIRF to translate and interpret the ISA textbooks as well as any analysts commissioned by the State Department...to conclusively determine what is being taught at ISA," he stated.

To buttress his request, Wolf included a recent report by the Heritage Foundation that stated "ISA is subject to the terms of the Foreign Missions Act" and that it is in the State Department's powers to declare ISA "a foreign mission of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."

IN THE LETTER to Wolf, signed by Matthew A. Reynolds, Acting Assistant Secretary, Legislative Affairs, the State Department indicated that, although they had not answered previous inquiries about ISA in writing, they had kept Wolf and his staff informed of their actions.

"Your letters have raised important issues. We have appreciated the opportunity to discuss these with you and your staff in recent months. No government should produce materials that are intolerant of religious, racial, or ethnic groups, nor include such material in its educational curricula," Reynolds wrote.

When questioned as to why his letter seemed to indicate that no contact had been made by the State Department relative to his ISA inquiries, Wolf insisted, "The State Department has never been by my office." However, he did not confirm or deny any contact between his staff and the State Department over the period of time of his correspondence with Secretary Rice.

"The matter is very simple. If there is no problem with the textbooks than the State Department should act to remove the cloud. If there is a problem then remove the books," Wolf said.

"Two scholars from the Religious Freedom Commission have looked at these text books and they say there is a problem. It needs to be resolved one way or the other," he said.

Reynolds also pointed out to Wolf that, "the school has reported that it is in the process of adopting new religious curricula and textbooks for the 2008-09 school year. The ISA has stated publicly that the new school year's textbooks are currently being reviewed by professors at two American universities." Neither the professors nor their universities were identified by Reynolds in his letter to Wolf.

DEBATE ABOUT the school's curriculum and textbooks ignited in October 2007 when the Religious Freedom Commission issued a report calling for the school's closure "until such time as the official Saudi textbooks used at ISA are made available for comprehensive public examination." The Commission also sought intervention by the State Department and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.

The school building at 8333 Richmond Highway, is leased from Fairfax County. That lease recently came up for renewal and was renewed for one year with an option for two one year extensions on a motion from Mount Vernon District Supervisor Gerald Hyland, in whose district the school is located.

ISA's Director General Abdalla I. Al-Shabnan, who heads the school, has insisted all along that the textbooks do not contain hate and violence imbedded within the subject matter. He has also insisted that the textbooks of ISA are not those supplied by the Saudi Arabian government.

At the outset of the controversy, Hyland had a specialist in Arabic review the texts. Her report concluded that the curriculum texts did not, on their face, contain offensive language pertaining to hate, violence and religious intolerance. However, she did conclude that certain passage should be expunged because they could be misinterpreted.

Al-Shabnan submitted the curriculum texts to two independent university scholars to have them analyzed and evaluated. A report on those findings was to have been delivered to Hyland's office no later than Monday, Sept. 22. As of late afternoon Sept. 23 the report had not been delivered and phone calls to ISA and Al-Shabnan office were received by voice mail with no call back.

"We have not received the report or any explanation from the Academy as to why we have not received it," said Brett Kenney, chief aide to Hyland.

The entire matter including both the textbook issue and ISA's lease renewal was further complicated early this past summer when Al-Shabnan was arrested as a result of his failure to report a complaint from a five year-old female student that she was allegedly being sexually abused at home by her father. Virginia law requires reporting of all such accusations by school personnel.

Al-Shabnan was originally charged with two misdemeanors of failing to report and obstruction of justice. He said that he did not believe the girl and advised the parents to seek psychiatric help for her. However, he also ordered the school's computers to be purged of any report about the complaint.

In the final analysis he was fined $500 on the failure to report charge. The school also instituted an in-depth training program for all personnel on Commonwealth requirements dealing with such matters.

Following the vote to renew the lease, Fairfax County Board Chairman Gerald Connolly sent a letter to Secretary Rice asking the State Department to make a determination not only on the textbook matter but also the lease renewal. He noted that during the Board’s public hearing on the lease no objections were voiced by the State Department or the Commission "regarding either the renewal or the textbooks."

A reply from the State Department stated, "No authorization from the Department to renew the lease is required. The Department has not used the Foreign Missions Act to regulate private pre-school, elementary and secondary school curricula." Actions by the State Department on Wolf's requests remain unresolved.

What is it going to take to get our government, which is sworn to protect us, to take a hard look at the Islamic Saudi Academy?

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Thursday, September 25, at 8:00 P.M. Phoenix time, WCandI will host "Voices of Freedom," a one-hour weekly show on KFNX 1100. See this time-zone chart (Refresh the page!) if you are in a different time zone than Phoenix, Arizona; click directly on the word "PHOENIX" to get a world map of time zones.

Friday, September 19 (90 minutes): Max Publius of the blog Brave News World will be with us during the first half hour. Our guest at the bottom of the hour is Glen Jenvey. Read his bio HERE. His web site is Al Qaida-Exposed, which offers numerous videos and articles related to Mr. Jenvey's undercover work in combating terrorism.

1. Max Publius, a veteran, will discuss with us inversionism, the process in which an ideological group finds to its horror it has allied with or even become the "boogyman" it has assailed previously and his views about the Iraq War, in which he served in our military.

Glen Jenvey worked for several military attachés covering terrorist groups, including al-Qaida and their members in Britain. His sting led to the capture of Abu Hamza al-Masri, a major terrorist. Multiple other terrorists were also caught due to his efforts. He has been profiled and interviewed in major media across the globe, including in the US, UK, Russia, India, etc. He co-authored the book "War of the Web" with Jeremy Reynalds.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Apparently one is sitting on the bench of the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. And this September 14, 2008 article in the local section of the Washington Post shows a slant toward Islamophilia when reporting on prosecutor U.S. attorney Gordon Kromberg:

Relentless Terrorism Prosecutor Faces Accusations of His Own

Sami al-Arian, one of the nation's most prominent terrorism defendants, was about to be released into his daughter's custody to await a new trial on contempt charges. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg protested, saying that "in this particular culture," a woman could not prevent her father from fleeing.

U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema lashed out at the prosecutor, calling his remark about the Muslim family insulting. Earlier, she had chastised Kromberg for changing a boilerplate immunity order beyond the language spelled out by Congress and questioned whether Arian's constitutional rights had been violated.

"I'm not in any respect attributing evil motives or anything clandestine to you, but I think it's real scary and not wise for a prosecutor to provide an order to the Court that does not track the explicit language of the statutes, especially this particular statute," Brinkema said at the hearing in the Alexandria courtroom.

[...]

Defenders of the fast-talking New York native say he has a tough-but-fair style that keeps Americans safe...

[...]

"Gordon is very effective and professional," said Andrew McCarthy, a former federal terrorism prosecutor. "As long as nothing goes boom, they want to say you're an Islamophobe. The moment something does go boom, if the next 9/11 happens, God help anyone who says they weren't as aggressive as Gordon."...

Andrew McCarthy understands what's at stake. But with judges such as Brinkema sitting on the bench, all of us are less safe and more of these jihadists will continue to escape our legal system.

And check out this portion of the WaPo article:

...Kromberg's highest-profile case since joining the office's new terrorism unit after Sept. 11 was what prosecutors called the "Virginia jihad network," 11 Muslim men convicted on such charges as preparing for holy war by, among other things, playing paintball. Justice officials hailed it as a classic post-Sept. 11 case of prevention, but civil libertarians and some Muslims said it targeted Muslim men.

Fact check! They were Moslem men waging jihad! Their motivation came from the Koran.

But the Arian case escalated the tension. Arian pleaded guilty to one count of supporting Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Tampa in 2006 after a federal jury acquitted him or deadlocked on other counts. The judge who sentenced Arian to 57 months in prison called Arian a "master manipulator" who had been a "leader" of the terrorist group.

Kromberg sought Arian's testimony in the Islamic charities probe and refused to delay his appearance until after the Muslim holiday of Ramadan because, he said, that would aid the "Islamization" of the courts, according to an affidavit filed by one of Arian's attorneys, Jack Fernandez.

"They can kill each other during Ramadan, they can appear before the grand jury. All they can't do is eat before sunset," Kromberg said ...

Prosecutor Kromberg is stating a fact. And saying so gets him branded as an Islamophobe.

Leftist judges don't want to know the facts about Islam and don't want those facts brought out in court, either. No wonder so many of the "terror trials" end in acquittals and mistrials!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Tonight, September 11, at 8:00 P.M. Phoenix time, WCandI will host "Voices of Freedom," a one-hour weekly show on KFNX 1100. See this time-zone chart (Refresh the page!) if you are in a different time zone than Phoenix, Arizona; click directly on the word "PHOENIX" to get a world map of time zones.

Tonight's guest is "Mohammed Abdul."

Tune in if you can! In addition to AM air time at the scheduled hour, KFNX offers live streaming at the station's web site.

Friday, September 12 (60 minutes): Our scheduled guest for the full hour is Colonel Gordon Cucullo. Read his bio HERE.

Colonel Gordon Cucullo — author, commentator and speaker and an authority on military affairs, current events, cultural dynamics, politics, and international business affairs — will discuss war scenarios with radical Islam.

Listen to the September 12, 2008 edition of The Gathering Storm Radio Show, live or later, by CLICKING HERE.

1.Resa is a military historian and has appeared as a guest on The Armstrong Williams Radio Show and The Mike Reagan Radio Show. You can read more about Resa HERE and HERE. Her Blogger web site, America's War Chick, is HERE.

2.Bosch Fawstin, Eisner Award nominee, is a cartoonist and the author of the graphic novel Table for One. He is currently working on his second graphic novel, The Infidel, about twin brothers whose Muslim background comes to the forefront of their lives on 9/11; one brother responds by creating a counter-jihad superhero comic book called Pigman, as the other surrenders to Islam and becomes a born again Muslim, following the faith to wherever it leads him. Mr. Fawstin's web site is HERE; his blog, The Infidel Blog, is HERE.

Listen to the September 5, 2008 edition of The Gathering Storm Radio Show, live or later, by CLICKING HERE.

Tonight, September 4, at 8:00 P.M. Phoenix time, Pastorius, webmaster of Infidel Bloggers Alliance,will host "Voices of Freedom," a one-hour weekly show on KFNX 1100. See this time-zone chart (Refresh the page!) if you are in a different time zone than Phoenix, Arizona; click directly on the word "PHOENIX" to get a world map of time zones.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Tonight, August 28, at 8:00 P.M. Phoenix time, Cassandra, author of Escape! From an Arab Marriage and Thirty-Three Secrets Arab Men Never Tell American Women: A Dissection of How Muslims Treat Women and Infidels, and webmaster ofNo Slaves of Allah in America,will host "Voices of Freedom," a one-hour weekly show on KFNX 1100. See this time-zone chart (Refresh the page!) if you are in a different time zone than Phoenix, Arizona; click directly on the word "PHOENIX" to get a world map of time zones.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Tonight, August 14, at 8:00 P.M. Phoenix time, Cassandra, author of Escape! From an Arab Marriage and Thirty-Three Secrets Arab Men Never Tell American Women: A Dissection of How Muslims Treat Women and Infidels, and webmaster ofNo Slaves of Allah in America,will host "Voices of Freedom," a one-hour weekly show on KFNX 1100. See this time-zone chart (Refresh the page!) if you are in a different time zone than Phoenix, Arizona; click directly on the word "PHOENIX" to get a world map of time zones.

1. Ilana Freedman is a member of Gerard Group International and is an expert on counter-terrorism. We will discuss with her current events and developments in her field of expertise.

2. Layla Elizabeth Gonzalez, of the web site The Hill Chronicles, will be our guest for the last hour of the show. We will discuss with her the dangers and consequences of marrying a Muslim man as she shares with us her own experiences in that regard.

You can listen to the August 15, 2008 edition of The Gathering Storm Radio Show, live or later, by CLICKING HERE.

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Tonight, August 7, at 8:00 P.M. Phoenix time, Pastorius, webmaster of Infidel Bloggers Alliance,will host "Voices of Freedom," a one-hour weekly show on KFNX 1100. See this time-zone chart (Refresh the page!) if you are in a different time zone than Phoenix, Arizona; click directly on the word "PHOENIX" to get a world map of time zones.

Tonight's guests are Ayisha, Mohammed's child bride; Mohammed the Dog; and Robert Spencer.

Tune in if you can! In addition to AM air time at the scheduled hour, KFNX offers live streaming at the station's web site.

Friday, August 8 (60 minutes): Our guest today for at the bottom of the hour will be "Z" of the blog geeeeeZ!Read her profile HERE. We will discuss with "Z" the dangers of blogging about Islam and the consequences of losing freedom of speech.

You can listen to the August 8, 2008 edition of The Gathering Storm Radio Show, live or later, by CLICKING HERE.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Tonight, July 31, at 8:00 P.M. Phoenix time, WC and I will host "Voices of Freedom," a one-hour weekly show on KFNX 1100. See this time-zone chart (Refresh the page!) if you are in a different time zone than Phoenix, Arizona; click directly on the word "PHOENIX" to get a world map of time zones.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

The director general of a controversial private Islamic school in Fairfax County has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of failing to report child abuse and was fined $500.

Abdalla I.M. Al-Shabnan, head of the Islamic Saudi Academy on Route 1 in the Mount Vernon area, was arrested last month by Fairfax police after allegedly being informed of the possible sexual abuse of a 5-year-old student at the school. School authorities are required by law to report alleged child abuse within 72 hours.

Al-Shabnan was charged with misdemeanor counts of failing to report child abuse and obstruction of justice. In a plea agreement, Al-Shabnan pleaded guilty July 24 to the failure to report charge and Fairfax prosecutors agreed to dismiss the obstruction charge, according to court records.

Al-Shabnan did not return a phone message today seeking comment. His attorney, Robert C. Whitestone, also did not respond to a request for comment.

Whitestone is one of the premier defense attorneys in Fairfax County. As a local here in Northern Virginia, I well know the reputation of that particular legal firm. They are masters of plea bargaining and the attorneys' attorneys! And their fees match their skills, too.

Continuing now with the WaPo article:

Cultural differences may have led to the episode which resulted in Al-Shabnan's arrest.

[...]

Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Ian M. Rodway said the plea agreement "was satisfactory to all the people involved in the case."

Rodway used to be a defense attorney - and a formidable one, at that. Still, I wonder how he would explain those aforementioned "cultural differences."

The case of Abdulla Al-Shabnan was supposed to come before the court on August 1. That won't happen now, of course.

Friday, July 25 (60 minutes): Our guest today for most of the hour will be Chaim of the web site Freedom's Cost.---------You can listen to the July 25, 2008 edition of The Gathering Storm Radio Show, live or later, by CLICKING HERE.

Monday, July 21, 2008

From Detroit-based conservative commentator Debbie Schlussel (who is at her best when investigating and writing about Islam), a sampling of letters to the editor of the Wall Street Journal in response to a commentary on Obama Should Embrace His Muslim Heritage:

Here is one from a resident of Bethesda:

It is not irrational to fear Islam when we daily see property being destroyed and people murdered by terrorists, who use Islamic teachings and quote directly from Quranic verses to justify their actions.

Moderate Muslims have not been able to use theology to effectively refute the terrorists. We see the lack of women's rights and lack of freedoms that exist wherever Islam rules. All cultures are not equal and we don't want the Islamic culture introduced into the West. Our ancestors worked too long and too hard for the freedoms that we have, and we don't want to be taken back to a 7th-century misogynistic, totalitarian ideology that cloaks itself within religious doctrine in order to hide its true goal of world domination.

Hooray! When public institutions are carrying water for Muslim organizations, sometimes we feel alone in our struggle. It's heartening to read that other local residents "get it."

Other salient points from the Pajamas Media article (found through Jihad Watch) about how CAIR is using strong-arm tactics against Fairfax County police, despite the cozy relationship between CAIR and the Fairfax County police.

Some of the incidents have already been covered on the Northern Virginiastan blog, such as the case of Sergeant Weiss Rasool and the participation of chief of police Col. David Rohrer and County Board of Supervisors chairman Gerry Connelly at a 2005 community forum, in which they intimated that Fairfax County police would not follow Federal immigration laws. Shockingly, Sgt. Rasool is still a member of the Fairfax County police force.

One thing that this blog did not report on was that Col. Rohrer spoke at the November 2006 CAIR fundraising dinner.

An otherwise unremarkable hearing in the Fairfax County, Virginia, general district court last Thursday marked an ominous trend with respect to the cherished American judicial principles of the rule of law and equality before the law. The hearing on four misdemeanor charges against Dr. Mustafa Ahmed Abbasi featured all of the usual players — judge, bailiff, clerks, prosecutors, police officers, criminal attorneys, and defendant — but with one notable addition to the judicial drama, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

CAIR’s intervention in the Abbasi case is a manifestation of a larger campaign against law enforcement to use political alliances and legal threats to intimidate police in cases involving Muslim defendants and to establish separate and preferable treatment for Muslims in the American legal system....

Friday, July 18 (60 minutes): Our guest today for the full hour will be Cassandra USA.---------Cassandra USA is the author of Escape! From an Arab Marriage: Horror Stories of Women Who Fled From Abusive Muslim Husbands and Thirty-Three Secrets Arab Men Never Tell American Women: A Dissection of How Muslims Treat Women and Infidels. The topic under discussion on this week's show: shari'a finance.

You can listen to the July 18, 2008 edition of The Gathering Storm Radio Show, live or later, by CLICKING HERE.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Concerned about the Islamist threat?Please join us to get out of the heat and into the fight against jihad.

The Virginia Chapter of the United American Committee proudly begins an objective and unapologetic series of film screenings and discussion on Islamist aggression. A new film will be shown each month beginning in July and ending in October.

From 2:00-3:00 p.m., Saturday, July 19, 2008, “Terrorists Among Us” will be screened in Room 101 A&B, of the new City of Fairfax Regional Library.

“Terrorists Among Us” is a 1994 PBS documentary that reveals footage of jihadi networks inside the US. US Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ) endorses the film by saying “I encourage every member of the House and Senate and hopefully every American to view this video.”

A one hour discussion period will follow for those wishing to participate or listen.

Those concerned about the Islamist threat are encouraged to attend. As seating is limited, please RSVP to: virginia@unitedamericancommittee.org

The City of Fairfax Regional Library is located at 10360 North Street Fairfax, VA, 22030-2514. Phone: 703-293-6227

Friday, July 11 (60 minutes): Our guest today at the bottom of the hour will be Jungle Mom of the blog The Jungle Hut. She will discuss with us the Iran-Venezuela connection.You can listen to the July 11, 2008 edition of The Gathering Storm Radio Show, live or later, by CLICKING HERE.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Since 9/11, we have heard of the importance of more of us learning to speak Arabic. Indeed, more and more people today are studying the Arabic language, many of these students enrolled in community colleges and prestigious universities as well as uncounted others studying by using software such as Rosetta Stone. I personally know a few young people who have attempted such classes, only to abandon their study of Arabic; the reasons they gave me, their former teacher, were vague but typically included a level of discomfort with the material or the instructor.

A July 5, 2008 Washington Postcommentary, written by a student at Harvard Law School, provides disturbing information about the material offered in such classes:

To study Arabic in America today is to be inducted into a world of longing, abandonment and regret. And that's before you even touch the political issues.

Most maps of the Middle East in "Al-Kitaab" [the curriculum used] do not include Israel, though a substantial minority of Israelis, both Jews and Arabs, are native Arabic speakers. Alongside simple Arabic poems, students read about anti-Western heroes such as Gamal Abdel Nasser.

The DVD that comes with "Al-Kitaab" includes footage of Nasser's mass rallies in Cairo -- including slogans in Arabic and French such as "Brother Nations in Struggle, We Are By Your Side." These scenes of totalitarian rage are fondly described by the narrator as "dreams of his youth."

The accompanying lesson describes the highlights of Nasser's career, including the nationalization of the Suez Canal and the formation of the United Arab Republic. No mention is made of Egypt's defeat in the Six-Day War or of Nasser's brutal, repressive rule. In my class, we were asked to recite a passage about Nasser to practice our vocalization. (I refused.)

The last lesson in the book -- which we skipped -- features Maha's mother speaking wistfully of her childhood in Palestine: "My childhood was taken from me!" Over mournful music on the DVD, she talks about returning to Jerusalem, as if she were a refugee, but the images suggest that she left voluntarily after the Six-Day War, when Israel offered citizenship to the Arab residents of East Jerusalem. The fact that Israel also claims Jerusalem as its capital is ignored.

My class watched three movies this semester, all with political themes. One was "West Beirut," which cast Christians as the prime bad guys in Lebanon's civil war (though, to be fair, there was plenty of hatred all around). Another was "The Tale of Three Jewels," an allegorical film about Palestinian nationalism that portrayed Israeli soldiers as bloodthirsty child-killers.

The third movie, "Destiny," told the story of the great medieval Islamic philosopher Averroes and his struggles against Islamic religious fundamentalism. It was a bit more nuanced than the first two. But the film omitted the fact that it was only through the Hebrew transcription of Averroes's writings by Jewish scholars in Egypt that his works were preserved for posterity.

Friends and relatives who have used "Al-Kitaab" at other American universities report similarly morose experiences.

[...]

...[T]here is something fundamentally wrong with this indoctrination into misery. Most introductory language classes avoid controversial political subjects. In fact, they often highlight the brighter side of different cultures. Particularly with the growing importance of Arabic, can't we do better?

The U.S. government has funded studies on anti-Semitism in Palestinian textbooks. Fairfax county officials have asked the State Department to investigate the teaching materials at a Saudi-funded school. "Al-Kitaab" is published by Georgetown University Press, with some assistance from the National Endowment for the Humanities.Perhaps we should also be looking into the content of the federally funded materials used in Arabic programs at our own universities.

According a friend of mine who studied Arabic as a second language in Saudi Arabia, lessons in The Kingdom included material much unlike primer readers to which most of us are accustomed. Specifically, beginning lessons used phrases such as "The sword is on the table," "The sword is under the table," and "The sword is behind the curtain." Certainly those phrases and their message are quite different from the early readers I encountered as a child, those primers including phrases such as "The cat is on the mat" and "See Spot run"!

Via a Google search of how language shapes thinking, I found the following essay entitled "Semanticide," by William Murchison at Human Life Review 1999:

George Orwell's stress on the distortive possibilities available in language remains fresh because of his descriptive and prophetic powers. Nineteen Eighty-Four sears the recollection, notwithstanding that when the title-year in question actually got here, the distorters-the Soviets-were stumbling toward ruin. Orwell's lesson is clear:Language shapes thinking; thinking shapes action. When language means other than it must, for a particular possibility to reach fruition, somebody is going to propose a new way of talking, and of understanding.

As the West rightly pursues the study of Arabic, precautions must be taken that the classes are not those of indoctrination and propagandizing. Instead, we have institutions such as the Islamic Saudi Academy instructing our military in Arabic. What else is being taught in those Arabic-language classes?

Friday, July 4 (60 minutes): Our guests today will be three staunch patriots — Warren, Mr. Beamish, and The Beak.---------Warren served in the army, designed my avatar, and adminstrates here at Always On Watch. Beak works immigration control because, after 9/11, he wanted to serve and defend America. Mr. Beamish hasn't served, but his brother was aboard the USS Cole — not on board when the attack came, thank God. All are well read, of course.

You can listen to the July 4th edition of The Gathering Storm Radio Show, live or later, by CLICKING HERE.

The controversial school funded by the Saudi Embassy had its corporate charter revoked in 2004 and has never filed required tax forms with the IRS.

...[A] review of the corporate records on file with the Virginia State Corporation Commission finds that the Islamic Saudi Academy’s corporate charter was terminated by the state on December 27, 2004. There is no indication from state records that the incorporation has been revived or renewed, and the last corporate report the school has filed with the state of Virginia that we could find was 2004 — the same year its corporate charter was terminated. A check of corporations in neighboring District of Columbia and Maryland found nothing for the academy.

[...]

...As the academy has forfeited its Virginia incorporation and is now operating as a d/b/a of the embassy, and considering that the school is funded by the embassy, operates on property owned and leased by the embassy, the embassy speaks publicly on its behalf, and it uses Saudi government curriculum, it seems impossible to conclude anything but that it is solely an entity of the Saudi government controlled entirely by the Saudi Embassy in Washington DC — a position directly in opposition to the present claims of the State Department.

Our investigation also found that at no time has the Islamic Saudi Academy ever filed an IRS Form 990, which is required of every tax exempt organization, including private schools. And according to IRS Publication 78, at no time has the school ever requested or received a tax exemption letter from the IRS. Nor, apparently, has it ever filed corporate taxes with the US government as would be required if it were an entity independent from the Saudi embassy, as it has no recognized tax exemption.

If the school was a separate corporation as State Department officials have repeatedly claimed, it would have to have an active corporate charter (which it doesn’t appear to have since December 2004), and it would either have to file IRS Form 990s if it were operating as a tax exempt organization, or file tax returns if it were operating for-profit. That has not happened in either case according to our investigation. Rather, all evidence indicates that the Saudi Embassy is in full corporate control of the school, and it is operating entirely under its agency, which makes the school subject to the Foreign Missions Act and under the authority of the State Department. If it isn’t part of the Saudi Embassy, it seems that the academy is operating illegally.

This new evidence doesn’t give much leeway to the State Department to shirk the matter.

Apparently, in addition to the school's other problems, the school's charter was revoked and some required IRS filings were not done. Surprise, surprise! NOT!

Meanwhile, go HERE to see the MEMRI clip of Al-Jazeera's report on the Islamic Saudi Academy. At marker 2:28 on the clip, you will hear the word "madrassah," defined as follows by the American Heritage Dictionary:

A building or group of buildings used for teaching Islamic theology and religious law, typically including a mosque.

Those who have read this web page by Daniel Pipes, also know about other connotations for the word "madrassah."

The Islamic Saudi Academy (a madrassah) is coming under long-needed scrutiny. At this point, a Google search of the school yields over 9000 hits, and the number of hits increases every day.

Predictably, Moslems are complaining about the scrutiny of the school, never mind ISA's broken promises about revising the offending textbooks as well as various other problems at the school. From the MEMRI transcript for the above-linked video:

[T]his is a nightmare for the families of the students enrolled in the academy. This pressure is exerted by several Congressmen, known for their great hostility towards Arabs and Muslims.

[...]

What should be said about a commission that some say is unconstitutional and contradicts the very meaning of its name? This commission [which recently issured the report on the textbooks] calls upon all countries of the world to respect freedom of religion there, while the commission itself violates this freedom on its own land.

Um, ISA supporters, remove the beam from your own eye before trying to remove the speck from another's eye.

1. Bosch Fawstin's web site is HERE, where he states the following about his work: I'm a cartoonist who's currently working on my second graphic novel, THE INFIDEL, about twin brothers whose Muslim background comes to the forefront of their lives on 9/11. One responds by creating a counter-jihad superhero comic book called PIGMAN, as the other surrenders to Islam and becomes a Born Again Muslim, following the faith to wherever it leads him. Mr. Fawstin is also a contributor to Infidel Bloggers Alliance, where he uses the following avatar:

2. Steven R. Bradley is the author of novel Nimrod Rising. According to Amazon,Have you ever felt that the world was guided in ways that are beyond man’s control? The constant changes in the world since the time of Nimrod 4000 years ago until today and all the events that have shaken the world have been to bring the universe back into the hands of the Prince of Darkness, Lucia, a world that he had ruled with his Watchers before it was all ripped from his grasp when man was created. Nimrod Rising paints a diabolical picture of how the Prince of Darkness executes his evil plot to take the world back by force and destroy civilization in the process. From the Great Builder Nimrod in 4000 BC to today, 666 generations later, you can ride the storm of Nimrod Rising and experience the death of a world and the birth pangs of another. You will swear it is really upon us! Mr. Bradley's Amazon blog is HERE. One trailer for the novel Nimrod Rising:

From this article in the June 24, 2008 edition of the Washington Post:

Fairfax County leaders asked U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday to determine whether the county should continue leasing property to the Islamic Saudi Academy following controversy surrounding the school's teachings.

With unanimous support from the county's Board of Supervisors, Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D) sent a letter to Rice "formally requesting" that the State Department provide direction regarding the county's one-year lease renewal, approved last month, with the Saudi Arabian government for operation of the academy.

You might recall from earlier postings about the Islamic Saudi Academy that previously the County supervisors voted unanimously to renew the school's lease and called citizens who voiced concerns about the school "bigots engaged in slander." You can watch the May 19 pro forma hearing at the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors HERE; select "Public Hearings" from the May 19 links.

Continuing now with the above-cited Washington Post article:

At issue are recent reviews of teaching materials concluding that some textbooks used by the Islamic school in Fairfax contain language intolerant of Jews and other groups as well as passages that could be construed as advocating violence.

Read the entire report from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom HERE. The report is damning!

Please watch this NBC 4 video of June 23, 2008. The video is approximately three minutes in length.

UPDATE FROM THIS ARTICLE IN THE JUNE 25, 2008 EDITION OF THE WASHINGTON TIMES:

Federal officials unable to actState cites lack of authority

The State Department has no authority to close a Saudi-supported school criticized for violent teachings, a spokesman said Tuesday, despite an official request for guidance from the Northern Virginia county that leases space for the school's main campus....

[...]

"My understanding at this point is that this doesn't come under State Department jurisdiction," Mr. McInturff said. "It would have to be credentialed by the State Department as an embassy or as a consulate. That to my knowledge has not happened to this school."

However, the commission contends the act could give the secretary of state authority to take action to close the school. The act defines a foreign mission in part as "any mission to or agency or entity in the United States which is ... substantially owned or effectively controlled by a foreign government."

Friday, June 20 (90 minutes): Our guests today will be Bill Warner of Political Islam, author Ellen R. Sheeley, and Ted Shoebat of the blog The Tedland Daily; he is the author of In Satan's Footsteps and the son of Walid Shoebat. Ted will discuss with us his book and his experiences with and observations on the educational system's whitewash of Islam.-------1. Bill Warner is the director of the Center for the Study of Political Islam and also writes articles for his web site Political Islam. He will discuss with us slavery and Islam; his Front Page Magazine article about this topic is HERE.